IIT-JEE cracked, poor students now struggle for counselling fee

For students from underprivileged families, who studied at Super 30 and cracked the IIT-JEE advance examination this year, the next hurdle is to arrange Rs 60,000 as counselling fee, following which they will be admitted to a college.

Three days after the sons and daughters of a cobbler, daily wage labourers, vendors, security guards, and landless farmers, among others, cracked the highly-competitive exam, their parents are struggling to arrange the required fee.

These wards of the poorest of the poor comprise 27 of the 30 students of the Super 30 institute in Bihar that coached these students for free.

"At Super 30, Anand Kumar sir took care of all our needs. We just had to study. Now, it is proving to be difficult," said a student.

Though several banks have offered to help, they can pay only for the admission.

"The banks give loan directly for admission. This can happen only if the students have an allotment letter for a specific college, which is possible only after counselling," said Kumar.

He said managing Rs.60,000 for counselling was a big ask for these poor families.

The father of Radheshyam, a physically challenged student who cracked the exam, said: "I am trying to arrange the money, but it is not easy."

Kumar also urged banks to financially help students from underprivileged families.

The IIT-JEE advance exams are conducted to secure admission to the undergraduate programmes offered by the 16 IITs in the country and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad in Jharkhand. The total intake capacity of these institutes is 9,784.

The rank in the examination can also be used to secure admission to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Rae Bareli; Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune; Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.